Introduction: Individuals with test anxiety [i.e., high test anxiety (HTA)] always treat tests/examinations as a potential threat. This cognitive mode impairs these individuals’ ability of inhibitory control and leads to a high level of anxiety. However, characterizing aspects of HTA’s impaired inhibitory control ability are unclear and need to be studied. Methods: Forty-six participants were recruited and divided into a HTA (N = 26) and low test anxiety (LTA; i.e., healthy control; N = 20) group. Self-reports (Test Anxiety Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for negative emotions) were obtained. An emotional Stroop (ES) task and a numerical Stroop (NS) task, causing different types of interferences, were used for assessing the emotional and cognitive aspects of attentional control ability (behavioral data). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were registered to further assess processing stages related to different aspects of attentional control ability. Results: Compared with the LTA group, the HTA group has inhibitory control deficits of both emotional (see ERP components P1-P2-N2 and P3) and cognitive (see ERP component P3) interference. Compared with the LTA group, the HTA doesn't have lower accuracy in neither ES nor NS but displays longer reaction times only in ES. Additionally, the HTA group’s ES results also show that (1) the degree of emotional interference indicates the level of an individual’s anxiety, and (2) the ERP component P2 may serve as an index of the level of test anxiety. Conclusion: HTA individuals have extensive inhibitory deficits for both emotional and cognitive aspects; however, impairment impacts more on emotional aspects than on cognitive aspects. Additionally, as compared to NS, the negative impact of more impaired processing stages on task performance is more substantial in ES.

Applying Fear Appeals Theory and Social Learning Theory, this study aims to explore the impact of perceived threat on psychic anxiety among college students in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mediating roles of response efficacy and self-efficacy. An empirical study was conducted using an online cross-sectional survey in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020. A random sampling method was applied to administer questionnaires to 646 Chinese college students. The results showed that: (1) the perceived threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, including perceived susceptibility and severity, was positively correlated with psychic anxiety; (2) self-efficacy mediated the effect of both perceived susceptibility and severity on psychic anxiety, while the response efficacy only mediated the effect of perceived susceptibility on psychic anxiety; and (3) response efficacy and self-efficacy played a serial mediating role on the relationship between perceived susceptibility and psychic anxiety. This study elucidates the relationship between perceived threat and psychic anxiety from the perspective of cognitive appraisal of threat, showing the role positive efficacy appraisal played in reducing psychic anxiety, which could be induced by the perceived threat of major public health emergencies such as COVID-19 pandemic.